Sword Art Online ~First Arc~

Originally a light novel written by Reki Kawahara it was adapted into an anime series in 2012. There are multiple arcs in the series and two separate seasons at the moment.

The first arc is Sword Art Online (SAO) and is the first virtual reality game that you watch the characters go through. It’s set in the perhaps not too distant future where there is something called a “Nerve Gear”. The Nerve Gear is a helmet that’s puts the person using it in a virtual reality world. You follow Kirito a player who got to beta test the game before the main launch. While logging in for the main launch all the players (a few thousand) find out that they are trapped in the game. If they die in game their real bodies will die in the real world, the only way to get out of the game and wake up is to beat all the levels and defeat the final boss. Kirito is a smart player and is early on branded a “Beater” a beta tester cheater. After some bad things happen he doesn’t like getting close to or joining up with other players. He meets Asuna a strong girl part of the Knights of the Bloodoath guild and there is a romance that develops between them. They are in the game for a little over 2 years. You meet many different players who all try to work together to be free of this virtual world.

I really liked this series, the virtual world aspect was neat and reminded me of a few different sci fi movies and books. I liked the real emotions of the players because you have to remember throughout that these are all real people somewhere trapped in a game. I liked the mmorpg set up as well. It came together and made a great story.I liked the characters and the relationships between them. I will admit I may have teared up a bit here and there. 6_6

I liked both main characters quite a bit. What did you think of the first arc? Who was your favorite character? Let me know in the comments!